SOUTH BEND -- A zoo keeper was in listed in stable condition at a South Bend hospital late Saturday after reportedly being attacked by a leopard at the Potawatomi Zoo. It was still unclear exactly how the incident took place, but injuries to the woman, identified by WSBT-TV as veteran zoo keeper Jeri Ellis, were not life threatening, according to Marcy Dean, the Potawatomi Zoological Society director. Emergency workers carried the woman out of the zoo on a stretcher about 11:45 a.m., her head heavily wrapped in bandages and blood spotting the white towels around her head and neck. She was taken to Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center in South Bend for treatment. Ellis was conscious and appeared alert as she was placed into an ambulance.Zoo director Terry Derosa said the attack happened in a holding room at the zoo and was not witnessed by any of the zoo visitors. He did not have details about what led to the injury, but explained that the zookeeper was conducting her regular duties when she was attacked. "It (was a) very typical routine duty that keepers do every day," he said shortly after his employee was taken to the hospital. "We're always concerned and take safety precautions when cleaning areas." The victim was a senior zoo keeper and had worked at the zoo for 12 years, Dean said. She had worked with the adult female Amur leopard before. The animal was shifted out of the immediate area where the attack took place, Derosa said, but was not being detained or separated from its normal housing area at this time. The zoo remained open during and after the incident and Derosa said visitors were not affected, nor would the leopard exhibit close. Although curious zoo guests watched the woman being loaded into the stretcher, most had no idea what had happened since the attack took place in a back area. The Kissel family had just passed by the leopard exhibit Saturday before leaving the zoo and were shocked when they heard about it upon coming outside. "(It was) ordinary," Dawn Kissel said of inside the zoo. The couple was relieved to hear that the animal hadn't actually escaped. "If it got loose, then I'd be worried," said Mike Kissel. Visitor Heather Eschbach said she and her family were near the prairie dog exhibit when they heard firetruck sirens. When they walked by the front gates, they saw a section of the zoo blocked off and they saw the victim being wheeled away. "When we asked what happened, they told us, 'it was an accident,'" she said. Eschbach and her husband Bryan both shook their heads when asked if the attack concerned them. "I think people forget these are wild animals living in captivity," Heather Eschbach said. "They (act) how they do naturally." Staff writer Alicia Gallegos: agallegos@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6368